# $Id$
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# History:
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# 2006-09-08 created by andrei
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Overview
The destination blacklist (dst_blacklist) is used to try to mark bad
destination and avoid possible future expensive send operation to them.
A destination is added to the blacklist when trying to send to it fails (e.g.
timeout while trying to send or connect on tcp), or when a sip timeout occurs
while trying to forward statefully an invite (using tm) and the remote side
doesn't send back any response.
The blacklist (if enabled) is checked before any send attempt.
Drawbacks
Using the destination blacklist will cause some performance degradation,
especially on multi cpu machines. If you don't need it you can easily
disable it, either in ser's config or at compile time. Disabling it at
compile time is slightly better (but not in a "measurable" way) then
disabling it at runtime, from the config file.
Whether the destination blacklist is better to be on or off depends a lot
on the setup. In general is better to turn it on when:
- sending to clients that don't respond is expensive (e.g. lots of clients
use tcp and they have the habit of silently discarding tcp traffic from time
to time)
- statefull forwarding is used (tm) and lower memory usage is desired
(a transaction will fail immediately if the destination is already
blacklisted by a previous transaction to the same destination that failed
due to timeout)
- faster dns failover is desired, especially when statefull forwarding (tm)
and udp are used
- better chances of DOS survival are important
Config Variables
use_dst_blacklist = on | off (default off) - enable the destination blacklist:
if on each failed send attempt will cause the destination to be blacklisted.
Before any send this blacklist will be checked and if a match is found the
send is no longer attempted (an error is returned immediately).
Note: using the blacklist incurs a small performance penalty.
dst_blacklist_mem = size in Kb (default 250 Kb) - maximum
shared memory amount used for keeping the blacklisted destinations.
dst_blacklist_expire = time in s (default 60 s) - how much time a
blacklisted destination will be kept in the blacklist (w/o any update).
dst_blacklist_gc_interval = time in s (default 60 s) - how often the
garbage collection will run (eliminating old, expired entries).
dst_blacklist_init = on | off (default on) - if off, the blacklist
is not initialized at startup and cannot be enabled runtime,
that saves some memory.
Compile Options
USE_DST_BLACKLIST - if defined the blacklist support will be compiled-in
(default).
Note: To remove a compile options, edit ser's Makefile.defs and remove it
form DEFS list. To add a compile options add it to the make command line,
e.g.: make proper; make all extra_defs=-DUSE_DNS_FAILOVER
or for a permanent solution, edit Makefile.defs and add it to DEFS
(don't forget to prefix it with -D).